Climate Tasmania

A Tasmanian take on the thorniest global issue since the dinosaurs. Based on Peter Boyer’s newspaper column in the Hobart Mercury.

Ruminations on extreme nature

The Murray-Darling floods may seem like an anomaly, but they fit within the IPCC pattern for climate change in Australia. [13 March 2012 | Peter Boyer]
The long-suffering people of the Murray-Darling basin don’t need to be told that Australia’s biggest river system is now awash with water.
Two years ago the system looked broken, barely alive [...]

Tasmanian forests: a growing carbon bank?

A forum in Hobart last week revealed the big transformation currently under way in our forest industries. [6 December 2011 | Peter Boyer]
Ah, the rich tapestry of life! Trees large and small, spaced and crowded. Crops and weeds, fungi and bacteria. Animals and their waste, wriggling worms, teeming maggots, rotting logs, leaf litter, compost. Conception, [...]

Want to save money? Save energy!

Tasmania’s home energy programs are a tiny first step, but they’re real value for money. [26 October 2011 | Peter Boyer]

Climate change is a topic for grand statements on big stages, heavy with portent for all of humanity. Those who talk about it, like yours truly, used to assume that people would stop and listen [...]